Lenten Reflection

“The greatest among you must be your servant.   Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Christ really nails the scribes and Pharisees.     They put heavy burdens on others, but won’t “lift a finger to help them.”   Perform good words to be seen.   Love the paces of honor in public.    Don’t practice what they preach.

Stern words there.   Some challenge.  Humble yourself.  

Before our peers, our students, our friends, the entire world?    Who?

Not to be too morbid during Lent, but how big are our tombstones going to be in the cemetery?   In a religious community, all the stones are the same.   At the Trappist monastery at Gethsemani, , you have to look through the rows for Thomas Merton’s grave.   Then you see the little stones his fans have left on top of his simple headstone.

As my friend said, while we were strolling through the rows, “Let’s not forget these other great men.”

“The greatest among you shall be your servant.”   

Even a world-class author buried in the hills of Kentucky among his brother monks.    From a distance you can’t tell which stone is his.

There are some other lessons in today’s readings.

 The first reading gives us a stern warning about Lenten repentance.   

“Wash yourself clean – from red to white.”   Sounds like those images inspired by the Baltimore Catechism of wringing our souls clean like dirty sponges full of sin.  

Lent is a time, as Isaiah says, “to set things right.”

The reward is in the responsorial psalm – Psalm 50 – “To the upright I will show the saving power of god.”  

If we repent, the Lord will shower us with his saving grace.

In addition to the humility lesson, Jesus tells us to call “no one on earth your Father,” except our “father in heaven.”    How about a priest?   

Garry Wills addresses that in his new book “Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition”  - haven’t read it yet.  One reviewer called it, “a sour screed against the priesthood.”   

There has been lots of discussion about the book on my cyber common room, composed of former seminarians and priests, but we’ll leave that for another reflection.    Bet you can hardly wait.  Or better yet, maybe Father Frank has a homily in the works already.

The main lesson here is humility.

In the college seminary on Good Friday, I was once picked as one of the twelve students to have our feet washed by the rector – the big boss of the place.    We get up there, take off our shoes and soxes, and meanwhile, he’s wrapping  a white towel around his waist.   And he washes our feet, one pair at a time.

I was thinking – how humiliating.    This guy barely talks to us, and now he’s washing our feet?    Later we found out that the sacristan selected those he thought were the twelve smelliest feet in the house…even though one confrere anointed his feet with cologne before the service.

Where did that come from – the washing of the feet?    Christ did that at the Last Supper.   

If he can be that humble, why can’t we?

Why don’t we take a little time during Lent to be more humble?   I’m not saying to rewrite our CV’s or anything that drastic.    Or going over to the gym, and start washing smelly feet.

Just take some time to help out those who need us, those who look up to us, those who have less than us.

Take a little extra time to be humble.

 Jack Breslin

February 26, 2013